Hey guys, I'm about to powdercoat my frame and I got a few recommendations for Akin & Co. in Cedar Park. I was all set to go there and then I had someone warn me about Akin and point me to Pro Tec in Hutto. Before I pull the trigger, does anyone have any first hand good/bad experiences with either? The one downside with Pro Tec is that they don't do any blasting... have to do that elsewhere first. Thanks for any data you can give me.
The last time I personally had any good powder coating done was by Brooks industrial coatings, outstanding work, but that was before Jim Brooks died. I understand that they still do good work. The company I work for had some work done by Petty Coatings that started peeling off in less than a year. Petty redid it but it was a bit of an ordeal.
Some smaller coaters don't want to do blasting on site for fear of contaminating (dust, grit, etc) their powder operation. However, they should at least offer to get your frame blasted for you..... The key to powder coating is cleanliness and a good pre-treatment. BTW, what prices are they quoting you?
Ahhh - makes sense. I don't have a quote from Pro Tec but Akin was $500 for the frame and an additional charge for blasting/cleaning depending on how it looks.
EDIT (waiting until I get a firm number from Pro Tec before I quote prices): OK - I just talked to Ray at Pro Tec and his estimate seems like it will be lower...
I had the frame on my roadster powder coated 12 years ago at Brooks, and except for where it has been welded on for crash damage and roll cage updates the powder coating still looks as good as new. It cost me $350 in 1995 and I took them the frame already sandblasted.
I am about to take my wheels in and get them powdercoated, let me know who you end up using and how it works out.
I had a bunch of stuff coated from a shop up north near Metric and Howard Ln called Commercial Services (www.commercialservicesco.com). And the good news is that they blast in-house as well. The prices are pretty competitive. I've had wheels both blasted and coated there for $75/ea and I was very happy with the results. I will try to find some pics when I get home to my computer. Thats also where I pick up my POR-15 locally.
Just wanted to wrap this one up. I ended up going with Pro-Tec Industrial Coatings and I was very happy with the results. Ray is a great guy and really helpful - he does great work at a very competitive price. Ray Jones Pro-Tec Industrial Coatings protecpowder AT yahoo DOT com (trying to protect him from spam) 512 846-1299 You can check out my blog if you want to see the chassis coming together with the nicely powdercoated frame: http://web.mac.com/marcandlauren/RodBlog/Rod_Blog/Entries/2007/10/28_Putting_the_chassis_back_together.html
Thanks Skot - it's coming along, slow but sure... After driving it around for 6 months in bare metal and having to tear it all down just to paint it, it's just really nice to finally be putting it back together again!
The Jalopy Journal
